Broody Hen Thread!

[lilwildrabbit]

Ok I know how to stop a broody hen now how to you get one to go broody??

 

[fisherlady]

Brownie with her crew outside...

And a few pics of silkies...

 

[dave564]

My young silkie went Broody in February after regularly laying eggs for a few weeks. Managed to quickly break her broodiness, but she has not started laying again. How long will this take?

 

[Mylied]

Ok I know how to stop a broody hen now how to you get one to go broody??

I just leave them a pile of eggs and if they are prone to go broody, they will. I've read some people use fake eggs or golf balls to the same effect.

 

[lilwildrabbit]

I had given up on having any broody hens this year so I started this morning to expand my coop thinking about making a transition coop under the main coop that way I can easily introduce pullets to the flock well low and behold I have two that has been in the coop all morning I checked under one while she was biting me. I do no about 8 eggs that wasn't there earlier and the other had 4 one of the birds has become a pet of ours that was injured when the dogs attacked in January she sits there and coos I move an egg or two out from under both one made a fuss and pulled the eggs back under her and then settled back down the other just nudged the egg under her and settled back in this has been over 4 hrs the whole while I was opening up my coop for summer taking the plywood off of the front of the coop where I have covered up the wire to close it off. They just sat there and looked!! But I actually need to redo the nest boxes now what??

 

[dan26552]

 

[elaineinspain]

This is my first time with chickens and first time with a broody hen.
My black australorp is broody. She has been for over a week. She is sitting on plastic eggs in a large dog crate with food. water and nesting box inside (she isn't sitting in the nesting box) I can see that she eats a little each day, and she must move around some because she is often in a different position than when she was last time I saw her.

I plan to set her on fertile eggs on Monday. Is there anything else I need to be doing? Should I open the dog crate door and leave it open in case she wants to go outside with the other chickens? It was open today for 20 minutes but she didn't seem to notice. She hasn't shown any interest in leaving her plastic eggs at all.
3 days ago I moved her from a regular nesting box over to the dog crate and she immediately settled carefully on the plastic eggs as if she gets moved around every day! The litter in the dog crate is wood shavings and dried leaves sprinkled with some wood ash and I put some sprigs of lavender, mint, rosemary and thyme in there with her. I can't see any horrendous broody poop in there, but she must've pooped in there!

Is there anything else I should be or shouldn't be doing?

 

[Renee97038]

I have a first time broody hen. She is Silver Laced Wyondotte and I gave her 10 eggs. Is that too many for her for her 1st time?

 

[lilwildrabbit]

Well I thought I had broody hens but no I sat around all morning to see how i could do the coop with my the hens sitting but as lunch time came and I came back out from lunch both were gone!! So I started way late redoing my nest boxes. I closed the door to the coop put a couple nest boxes outside just in case one needed to trelieve themselves of an egg and then started well one of my buffs decides she has to come in while I have the whole back wall down (water damage) she try's out the nest boxes and then back to the door she goes just off aiding all kinds of stink! I get the lower section done part way by this time it's getting to be supper time and I close off what I haven't finshed for tomorrow's work and then open the coop back for the birds. My buff has been back and forth at the door going on the whole time! She barrels in and jumps into the new nest jumps back out lets out a squabble jumps into the next box well there are 4 new boxes she does it to all 4 and then back to the first one by way of each one!! She fusses and squabbles the whole time finally pulling almost all the new hay out of the box settling down with most of the hay on top of her. Next think you hear is that egg hitting the plywood and a funny look on my hen! Well I'm still cleaning up so I open the henhouse to get a couple pieces of wood and to spread the hay back around on the floor I get just a little to close to her she reaches out and bites the crap out of me!! I do think I have one ticked off buff Orpington hen that will be mad at me for a while!!

 

[tweeker]

. Well I tried Movie the duo broody hens but they were stubborn I didn't have another pen so I was trying to separate them in the same pen and they would end up back with each other and almost abandoning eggs 18 of the 24 hatched. Omg that's a lot of chicks and they seem to be co-parenting then. Whatever works I guess!